Karim Vaes

It’s a big presentation (1:20), but it shows the potential of a new collaboration concept. I must say that the usability is a big plus compared to what’s currently on the market segment!

This week I experimented with some frameworks to see which would provide me the fastest development track for some hobby projects of mine. When reading this post, bare in mind that I come from a Drupal background (so I’m quite spoiled!)…

Requirements
I had a few requirements that such a framework should have:

• User Authentication : This is something almost every application needs in some form. If it was up to me, then this basic functionality should be included within easy framework. This was actually the first reason why I switched to Drupal, I was sick and tired to maintain the user management coding whilest this is a common thing.
• Good Documentation : I don’t mind learning new things, but they should be very clearly documented. I actually learned php right off the php.net site; hands-on with the user contributed code samples.
• Easy Setup on a shared hosting : Some frameworks are so high up in the sky that it takes you about an hour just to grasp the concept of how the creators wanted it to be. In my mind, it should just be “extract & go”… This doesn’t mean that it has to be a single directory structure. It’s merely meant towards the frameworks which have a “console-like” application to manage the framework. Not everyone has shell access to their development machine…
• Active User Community : A big part of the “Fast development track”-motivation lies in code submissions of the community behind the framework. You can borrow the code or you can learn from it… Either way, you’re coding at a much faster pace.
• Easy Form Support : Forms are a BIG part of every application. We can add some bling to it with “ajax” (hypeword detected!), but it remains a form in it’s bare essence.

My Basic Experience
Now for the ones that I’ve tested… Also I would like to add a word of respect to all the creators of the frameworks. This post is not to bash any frameworks, but just a form to express my experience with testing them all out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Logic+Emotion featured an article called Visualizing Chris Anderson’s “Free” Model.

• Free 1 : Kinda like the concept often used by Telecom operators. Buy a subscription and get the mobile phone for free. (Too bad this concept isn’t allowed by law in Belgium…. “Koppelverkoop”)
• Free 2 : The concept where the whole web 2.0 is running towards… Offer something for free to your community, but let an external party pay for their “subscription” by means of advertising.
• Free 3 : Shareware meets web 2.0… Get a limited version for free, but pay for the premium version.

You might also want to read the original article…

What are the characteristiccs?

• Stand Up : Everybody stands up, nobody sits down.
• 15 or less: Short session; max. 15min, if possible even shorter
• Token : Only the one holding the token speaks, and (s)he speaks towards the whole group.
• Offline : It isn’t a problem-solving meeting. So issues will be handled -offline- when it become too detailled. Meaning that they will be addressed after the meeting with only the affected persons involved.

What should you discuss?

• Yesterday : What did I do yesterday
• Today : What will I be doing today.
• Obstacles : What’s blocking me.
• Focus : Relevance to the backlog (general todo-list)

Which are the advantages?

• Identify obstacles : The meeting is a tool to identify problems, not to solve them. During the meeting people can indicate that they can assist you with your problem. Yet the actually discussion will be handled offline.
• Set direction and focus : A standup meeting will also help to keep everyone aligned towards the team goal. That way we won’t lose any time on less relevant things.
• Share commitment : We commit ourselves to tasks on a daily basis. By putting them in a group, we’ll be sharing the commitment on these issues (and thus knowing the existence).
• Communicate status : Communicating status is secondary to the identification of problems. Yet it’s a big factor that the key points of everyone’s daily task is know by everyone. The communication aspect isn’t meant to communicate to management, but to the other team members.
• Build a team : Don’t create groups, but create one team by knowing what everyone does.

For more information checkt he links on Wikipedia…